Mars: Insight news conferences + Mars 2020 landing target + Soft landslides

NASA TV will webcast two programs today about the upcoming touch down of the Insight lander on Mars: NASA Live: InSight Mars Landing | NASA 

NASA’s InSight lander is scheduled to touch down on Mars at approximately 3 p.m. EST, Monday, Nov. 26. NASA TV live coverage of the InSight Mars landing will begin at 2 p.m. Eastern (7 p.m. UTC). Upcoming briefings:

Wednesday, Nov. 21, 1 p.m. EST: InSight Mars Lander news conference: Mission engineering overview.
Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2 p.m. EST: InSight Mars Lander news conference: Mission science overview

It will take about 8 minutes for signals from Insight to reach earth during its descent through the atmosphere and the touch down on the surface. Here’s an item about the communications systems that allow for ground controllers to know what happened : How NASA Will Know When InSight Touches Down – NASA JPL

 

Insight landing sequence: Credits: Emily Lakdawalla for The Planetary Society

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The Mars 2020 Rover, which is similar in design and capabilities to the Curiosity rover, now knows where it will land: NASA Announces Landing Site for Mars 2020 Rover – NASA JPL

This Mars map depicts the final four locations under consideration for the landing site of Mars 2020. The topographic map of Mars was created by the Mars Orbital Laser Altimeter (MOLA) on board the robot Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. MOLA measured heights on Mars by precisely determining the time it took for a low power laser beam to bounce off the surface. Image Credit: NASA/MGS/MOLA Science Team. Larger view

Speaking of Curiosity, here is a recent update on its activities: Curiosity on the Move Again | NASA.

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Bob Zimmerman examines an image taken of the Martian surface and highlights what is similar and different between geologic processes on Mars versus on the Earth: The soft landslides of Mars | Behind The Black

The light gravity of Mars, combined with different materials, a lot of dust, and a geological history different from Earth, produces events that — though reminiscent of similar geological events on Earth — are definitely not the same.

Landslide in Southern Mid-Latitude Crater – HiRISE

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